SJIF Impact Factor 2021: 8.013| ISI I.F.Value:1.241| Journal DOI: 10.

36713/epra2016 ISSN: 2455-7838(Online)

EPRA International Journal of Research and Development (IJRD)
Volume: 6 | Issue: 11 | November 2021 - Peer Reviewed Journal

MARKETING STRATEGY OF SELECTED CEMENT

COMPANIES IN INDIA

Dr.Pawan Kumar Dubey1, Dr Umesh kumar2, Dr. Arivend3

1
P.G. Dept. of Economics, K.A.P.G. College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh
2
P.G. Dept. of Commerce, K. A. P. G. College Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh
3
Dept.of Economics N. DCollege Shikohabad, Uttar Pradesh

INTRODUCTION important role in the growth of a company or

Cement is one of the major components of
infrastructure development in the world. Today
without cement one cannot think of buildings, offices
and even roads. Development of cement industry is
completely correlated with the development of India.
Cement is one of the most important infrastructure
industries. India is the 2nd largest cement producer in
the world after China, which capacity of production
is 355 MT p.a. and per capita utilization is 196 kg.
The country has vast potential for development in the
construction and infrastructure sector due to support
to weaker section of the Indian society, and the
cement sector is expected to largely benefit from it.
Some of the recent major government initiatives such
as development of smart cities, reduction of rapo rate,
new financial policy and loans, are expected to offer
a major make better to the sector. Expecting such
developments in the country and aided by suitable
Govt. foreign policies, numbers of foreign investors:
such as Heidelferg cement, Lafarge Holeim, & vicat
have invested their funds in the country recently.
This is moreover significant that raw material is
required for cement production, like stone, Lime and
coal is willingly available in Indian earth.
Marketing is defined as the expectation,
management and satisfaction of customers‟ demand
through the exchange process of goods and money.
Strategy is comes from a Greek word strategos was
used by military to define the art of the general. The
meaning of it was to plan in such a way with the goal
to defeat the army of enemy.
Strategy is a plan of action to attain a
predefined long term goal. In the same way
marketing strategy is the goal of increasing sales or
profit and achieving a sustainable competitive
advantage. Marketing strategy always plays an
industry as a whole. Marketing strategy also decides
the future position of the company in the market as
well as in the industry.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Saxena (2010)1 has discussed with his study
that the role and importance of marketing strategy is
to create a competitive edge for the company to
decide the prospect of the company. The role of
marketing strategies is to understand the markets
which needed to be covered, finding the niche
markets among the various market choices, planning
for product and service offered by the companies,
pricing, promotion and distribution strategies to place
the product well in the market and management of
the outcome of the adopted marketing strategies.
Marketing strategies must be focused about the
customers and countering the strategies of
competitors to sustain in the market and strive for
making the profits for growth. It further states that a
company must create value to become competitive in
the market and to differentiate its offerings from the
competitors.
Morgan (2012) 2 discussed the three main
theories in strategic management with the empirical
and theoretical literature on strategic marketing to
develop an integrative theory-based conceptual
framework linking marketing with firms‟ business
performance. The outcome of the research shows that
there is a huge correlation in between marketing
strategies on the performance ofthe firm.
Burange and Yamini (2008)3 found in their study that
sales and marketing strategy is the foremost
important factor in the cement industry for many
companies. They found that sales and marketing

2021 EPRA IJRD | Journal DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra2016 | www.eprajournals.com |121 |

 SJIF Impact Factor 2021: 8.013| ISI I.F.Value:1.241| Journal DOI: 10.36713/epra2016
EPRA International Journal of Research and Development (IJRD)
Volume: 6 | Issue: 11 | November 2021
strategy got more weightage than any other factor for
the companies to become more competitive in the
industry. There is an extreme need to focus on sales
and marketing strategy for cement companies to take
competitive advantage to grow in the dynamic
business environment ofthe cement industry.
Roshan Shankar, Udit Agarwal Pragya Goel
and Wagisha Jha (2011) 4 conducted a study on
“Business Strategies for the Indian Cement Industry.
This article presents that the Cement is the one of
high demanded and single most important and
profitable product in the building material sector and
with the consumption of cement in India, which had
to touch six hundred million tonnes by the year 2020.
This study also concluded that considering the
increasing of cement demand in India and higher
capacity utilization over the years, and key Indian
players have already begun to revisit their business
strategies.
Kumar & Bansal (2013) 5 also conducted a
study and observed that stiff competition is one of the
major factors which are affecting the marketing
strategies of Indian cement companies. Lack of
proper product mix offered to the customers is one of
the lacunas in overall marketing strategy. It discussed
„hat differentiation among the products of different
brands is not possible due to availability of the same
inputs of raw material. It‟s further revealed the fact
that pricing is one of the factors plays a role of
differentiator among the brands. Fewer margins are
one of the main concerns across the cement industry.
Kumar, John and Senith (2013) 6 observed
through his research that the growthof Indian cement
industry in recent several years in india. In this study
designed to find out about the growth and
development of cement industry in India since 1991.
The parameters had taken into this study were
production capacity, exports, production, and value
addition in the cement products. This research was
entirely secondary data based and descriptive and
applied statistics have been used to evaluate the
performance of the Indian cement industry.
Shaik, Balkrishn and Banana (2014) 7
conducted a study on “A Study on Future Marketing
Trends Indian Cement Industry” and discussed about
the future marketing trends in the cement industry
which will focus on the emerging economies
markets, improving and enhancing production
technology or production portfolio to minimize the
cost to achieve cost leadership, branding and
innovation to provide better cement products to the
targeted customers. The future lies with those
companies which provide the best quality cement
product at affordable prices and most ofthe
companies in the cement industry is focusing on
producing the best quality cement by introducing
upgraded technology.
2021 EPRA IJRD | Journal DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra2016
ISSN: 2455-7838(Online)
- Peer Reviewed Journal
Previous studies show that marketing and
marketing strategy is one of the most important
elements for any firm. Marketing strategy provides a
direction to the firm to achieve its goals and
objectives within a stipulated time. It has been found
that marketing strategy plays a very important role in
the growth of the organizations. Both competitors
and customers are very important external factors
which can‟t be controlled by the organizations but
affect their business in a big way
IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
Business has a purpose to serve the
customer. Marketing is the strategist of product
pricing, product quality, sales promotion and
distribution of product which satisfy the customers
and marketing intermediaries. So this study have
emphasised to the existing system from the select
cement industries. For them define a suitable
Marketing Strategy model to maximise the sales in
national and international market.
The cement industry in India is one of the larger
markets in the world. It had been one of the fastest
growing globally, even it is currently experiencing
growth or positive growth rates.
Marketing is one of the important policies to
be adopted by the marketing department for the
same. In marketing, the cement producer or
marketing department analyses the nature of the
consumer„s requirements and then strategy his
product to provide satisfaction to the consumers. All
the marketing efforts focal point attention around the
consumers' wants. The management activity, thus
governed with the market and market perception to
recognize larger groups of Indian consumers through
marketing research and market information. Thus the
management always plans to meet the customer‟s
needs and to look market competitions. All activities
and programmes entail a number of marketing and
business functions, which are to be planned and
implemented carefully. This comprises proper market
analysis, systematic predictions and forecasting the
needs of the society or public. Thus identification of
demand and solve through supply involves various
activities of marketing to accomplish success in the
market and the arrangement of these major marketing
functions is called marketing mix.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Objectives of the study provide the direction to the
research and considered to be the one of the most
important part of the research. Following objectives
are:
1. To explore and measure the marketing
environment of cement industry in India.
2. To explore the marketing strategies adopted
by cement manufacturers in India.
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 SJIF Impact Factor 2021: 8.013| ISI I.F.Value:1.241| Journal DOI: 10.36713/epra2016 ISSN: 2455-7838(Online)
EPRA International Journal of Research and Development (IJRD)
Volume: 6 | Issue: 11 | November 2021 - Peer Reviewed Journal

questionnaire has been prepared to distribute among

METHODOLOGY OF THIS STUDY
This study is completely based on primary
data. Both primary as well as secondary data have
been collected to undertake the study. Mostly
Primary data collected through survey method using
questionnaire and also observation method has been
adopted. Secondary data has been collected through
various journals, books, company reports available at
both offline and online & websites of cement
companies.
A random sample of 76, of total sample
(respondents) 24, 27 and 25 has been chosen from
three cement companies mainly Ultratech, ACC and
Ambuja. Total 76 sample size has been chosen to
undertake this study and to attain all the objectives. A
the cement marketing professionals and channel
partners to collect the relevant data for the analysis.
The collected were analyzed using relevant statistical
tools like, Correlation, and ANOVA Analysis.
HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY
Hypotheses 1 : There is no significant difference
between the cement industry and product price,
technology, promotion & distribution system of the
cement industry”
Hypotheses 2 : There is no significant difference
between the marketing strategy and cement industry
of the selected firms”

DATA ANALYSIS
Table -1 Correlation coefficient analysis between marketing and cement companies
organizational culture Ultra Tech ACC Ambuja cement
Product
Pearson Correlation: 0.982809 0.966312 0.988644
Sig. (1-tailed): .000 .000 .000
N: 5 5 5
T-Statistics: 12.98325 9.118848 16.06873
Df: 3 3 3
P Value: 0.000493 0.001394 0.000262
Price

Pearson Correlation: 0.977616 0.983144 0.978333

Sig. (1-tailed): .000 .000 .000
N: 5 5 5
T-Statistics: 11.31779 13.11594 11.51187
Df: 3 3 3
P Value: 0.00074 0.000479 0.000704
Technology
Pearson Correlation: 0.98862 0.974061 0.968868
Sig. (1-tailed): .000 .000 .000
N: 5 5 5
T-Statistics: 16.05174 10.47543 9.510948
Df: :3 3 3
P Value: 0.000263 0.000929 0.001232
Promotion
Pearson Correlation: 0.987632 0.986204 0.980821
Sig. (1-tailed): .000 .000 .000
N: 5 5 5
T-Statistics: 15.38152 14.54267 12.267
Df: :3 :3 :3
P Value: 0.000298 0.000353 0.000583
Distribution
Pearson Correlation: 0.975304 0.97176 0.989109
Sig. (1-tailed): .000 .000 .000
N: 5 5 5
T-Statistics: 10.74957 10.01584 16.41612
Df: :3 :3 :3
P Value: 0.000861 0.001059 0.000246

2021 EPRA IJRD | Journal DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra2016 | www.eprajournals.com |123 |

 SJIF Impact Factor 2021: 8.013| ISI I.F.Value:1.241| Journal DOI: 10.36713/epra2016 ISSN: 2455-7838(Online)
EPRA International Journal of Research and Development (IJRD)
Volume: 6 | Issue: 11 | November 2021 - Peer Reviewed Journal

The correlation coefficient analysis was
performed to examine the relationship between
product price, technology, promotion & distribution
system and cement industries i.e Ultra Tech, ACC
and Ambuja Cement. The results indicated that, ACC
and Ambuja Cement all are the main variable
indicating that there is a positive strong significant
relationship between Ultra Tech & product price,
technology, promotion & distribution system.
The results indicated that Ultra Tech is the
main variable indicating that there is a positive strong
significant relationship between marketing strategy,
here Product (r = 0.982809, p value is less than
0.05), followed by Price (r = 0.977616, p<0.05) and
Technology (r = 0.98862, p<0.05). Similarly
promotion and distribution are also positive
significant relationship with ultra tech cement i.e (r =
0.987632, p<0.05), and (r = 0.975304, p<0.05)
respectively. The one sample t-test statistic of Ultra
Tech cement are 12.98325 in Product, 11.31779 in
price, 16.05174 In technology, 15.38152 in
promotion and 10.74957 in Distribution.
The results indicated that the ACC cement
is the main variable indicating that there is a positive
strong significant relationship between marketing
strategy, here Product (r = 0.966312, p value is less
than 0.05), followed by Price (r = 0.983144, p<0.05)
and Technology (r = 0.974061, p<0.05). Similarly
promotion and distribution are also positive
significant relationship with ultra tech cement i.e (r =
0.986204, p<0.05), and (r = 0.97176, p<0.05)
respectively. The one sample t-test statistic of ACC
cement are 9.118848 in Product, 13.11594 in price,
10.47543 In technology, 14.54267 in promotion and
10.01584 in Distribution.
The results indicated that the Ambuja
Cement cement is the main variable indicating that
there is a positive strong significant relationship
between marketing strategy, here Product (r =
0.988644, p value is less than 0.05), followed by
Price (r = 0.978333, p<0.05) and Technology (r =
0.968868, p<0.05). Similarly promotion and
distribution are also positive significant relationship
with ultra tech cement i.e (r = 0.980821, p<0.05), and
(r = 0.989109, p<0.05) respectively. And The one
sample t-test statistic of Ambuja cement are 16.06873
in Product, 11.51187 in price, 9.510948 In
technology, 12.267 in promotion and 16.41612 in
Distribution.
From this table it is clearly indicated that (r
value is more that p value) Hypotheses 1 “There is no
significant difference between the cement industry
and product price, technology, promotion &
distribution system of the cement industry” is
rejected and alternative hypothesis is accepted. So
there is a significant difference between the product
price, technology, promotion & distribution system
and cement inductries (Ultratech, ACC and Ambuja
Cement ).

Table -2 : Anova analysis between marketing strategy and cement companies

Anova: Two-Factor Without Replication

SUMMARY Count Average Variance

Ultra Tech 5 20.4 0.8
ACC 5 22.2 3.7
Ambuja cement 5 21.4 1.3

Product 3 20.66667 0.333333

Price 3 20 1
Technology 3 21 1
Promotion 3 23 4
Distribution 3 22 1

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 SJIF Impact Factor 2021: 8.013| ISI I.F.Value:1.241| Journal DOI: 10.36713/epra2016
EPRA International Journal of Research and Development (IJRD)
Volume: 6 | Issue: 11 | November 2021
ANOVA
Source of
Variation SS df
Rows 8.133333 2 4.066667
Columns 16.66667 4 4.166667
Error 6.533333 8 0.816667
Total 31.33333 14
The ANOVA test analysis was performed to
examine the relationship between marketing strategy
and cement industries i.e Ultra Tech, ACC and
Ambuja Cement. The results indicated that product,
pricing, technology, promotion and distribution
system are the main variable indicating that there is a
positive strong significant relationship between
cement industry & marketing strategy.
The output of ANOVA test resulted that the
P-value is 0.039374 which is less than 0.05. And F
value for (2,8) degrees of freedom at 5% level of
significance is 4.45897 is more than F crit value
4.979592 for type of cement company This implies
that, In respect of Columns (Ultra Tech, ACC and
Ambuja cement) there is a significance difference
between Ultra Tech, ACC and Ambuja cemen on
“regularly adopting marketing strategy.”
Similarly,The output of ANOVA test
resulted that the P value 0.024361 which is less than
0.05. And F value for (2,8) degrees of freedom at 5%
level of significance 5.102041 is greater than F crit
value 3.837853 for level of agree on marketing
strategy. This implies that, In respect of rows ,
product, price, technology, promotion and
distribution) there is a significance difference
between the statement and level of agree.
From this table it is clear that Hypotheses 2
“There is no significant difference between the
marketing strategy and cement industry of the
selected firms” is rejected and alternative hypothesis
is accepted. So there is a significant difference
between the marketing of the selected cement
companies (Ultratech, ACC and Ambuja Cement ).
It was noted that the respondents from the
cement industyry of Ultra Tech, ACC and Ambuja
cemen have responded to the option Strongly Agreed,
and Agree about regularly practices of marketing
strategy of this selected companies..
CONCLUSION
The cement industry requires to operate in
an social and environment needs to handle market of
continuous changing customers‟ product preferences.
The production and marketing development becomes
a major activity for cement industry of these
companies. Basically Cement companies are
2021 EPRA IJRD | Journal DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra2016
ISSN: 2455-7838(Online)
- Peer Reviewed Journal
MS F P-value F crit
4.979592 0.039374 4.45897
5.102041 0.024361 3.837853
functioning and operating their business in a high
competitive environment due to presence of the
cutthroat competition among the national &
international and existing cement investors and
players in the cement market. This article shows that
marketing environment in cement industry is very
competitive and dynamic and companies need to
adopt new age, digital based and unique marketing
strategies to be in competition at Indian cement
market not only survival but also for growth and
development in cement industry.
Cement companies are well aware of
importance of focusing customers. Cement
companies are willing to cater new customer
segments. It shows the level of competition among
the existing cement companies in the market. Any
company offers a product or service in the market
immediately introduced by its competitors in the
market. This concludes that cement industry is highly
competitive.
The results show that technology plays an
important role in the growth of cement industry
Companies have to ready for the change in the
technology to utilize the opportunity present in the
cement market. The results show that companies
contributed in the technology developments in the
cement industry. It is required for company to keep
the same pace in the change in the technology within
the company to contribute to the industry as a whole.
Company also needs to check about the benefits it is
getting from this contribution and act accordingly.
This will help us in further establishing success rules
for cement industry in Indian market.
REFERENCE
1
Saxena, R. (2010) Marketing Management. New
Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Priate Limited.
2
Morgan, N. A., (2012). Marketing and business
performance. Retrieved from
https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~moorman/Marketin
g-Strategy-Seminar-2013/Session%201
/Morgan%202012.pdf
3
Burange, L.G., Yamini, S. (2008). Performance of
Indian Cement Industry: The Competitive
Landscape. Retrieved from: http ://www.mu.ac.
in/arts/social science/eco/pdfs/depart/dwpl pdf
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 SJIF Impact Factor 2021: 8.013| ISI I.F.Value:1.241| Journal DOI: 10.36713/epra2016 ISSN: 2455-7838(Online)
EPRA International Journal of Research and Development (IJRD)
Volume: 6 | Issue: 11 | November 2021 - Peer Reviewed Journal

4
Roshan Shankar, Udit Agarwal Pragya Goel and
Wagisha Jha (2011) 4 conducted a study on
Business Strategies for the Indian Cement Industry,
“2010 International Conference on Economics,
Business and Management IPEDR vol.2 (2011) ©
(2011) IAC S IT Press, Manila, Philippines
5
Kumar, S., Bansal, S.C. (2013). Marketing Mix
Strategies and Indian Cement Sector. International
Journal of Emerging Research in Management
and Technology. 52-57.
6
Kumar, P.K., John, S. F., Senith, S. (2013). A Study
on the Progress of Indian Cement Industry. British
Journal of Marketing Studies. 1 (1), 1-15.
7
Shaik, M., Balkrishna, S., Banana, K. (2014). A Study
on Future Marketing Trends Indian Cement
Industry. International Journal of Engineering and
Management Research. 4 (2), 154-156.

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